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Bman: I went to college (La Tech)to be a pilot(professional aviioatn). I’d say chase the dream!!! The view from 3000 is phenomenal. The noise and wind inundates you. At my size the Cessna 152 is QUITE small, and very uncomfortable to fly, but as soon as the engine starts to whine, all the discomfort is forgotten. If you have any of the concerns that Jim describes, you still have powered flight options! They’re cheaper and just as fun! Buy and fly an ultralight aircraft!!!FAR 103 covers powered ultralight aircraft. There are no training, physical, or licensing rquirements.(I WOULD NOT ADVISE ANYONE TO EVER ATTEMPT TO FLY ANY AIRCRAFT WITHOUT PROPER TRAINING!!!)You could also look into light sport aircraft which was a change instituted in 2004 by FAA (courtesy of Experimental association). It doesn’t require medical approval, either. Basically, if you can get a driver license, you can get a light sport pilot license.If you dream of powered flight I can promise you’ll never regret it! As an aside (I was at the air space museum (Smithsonian) for the 100th anniversary(exact moment) of powered flight.) It was great. I met descendents of wilbur orville and more importantly Charles Taylor (any other airplane nerds know who he is? don’t cheat by googling). I found out that the wright flyer is original except for the fabric. They cut them up into pieces and gave them as souveniers, and sold some of them to continue funding flight ops.Sadly some raging assholes flew planes into the world trade center and ended my hopes of being a professional pilot, by putting many experienced pilots out of work, thus creating a backlog that’d take years to overcome flying chicken transports out of honduras at 15k a year. I had a few kids by this time (4 of 6) and couldn’t afford the paycut. I was already working as a mechanic for Delta, so I just rode that pony til I ran out of quarters.